Created from scratch with C# and XNA

in seven weeks using agile development,

pair programming, and copious amounts

of caffeine.

With gameplay inspired from the classic Asteroids, and movement inspired by Descent II and Freelancer, Quaternion is a freeform spaceship shooter allowing six degrees of freedom in 3D space. It also features an ever-increasing number of power-ups and enemy ship types.

Developed with C# and XNA using Agile Development and Pair Programming in seven weeks, the game has seen, and will continue to see, constant iteration and improvement.

Our humble little indie game wound up winning the Best Space Game category at GameSIG 2012. A bunch of excellent games were showcased, and we’re honored to have received an award. Along with two 500 GB hard drives, we’ve also won a tour of SpaceX. That should be fun!

Game development is a very rewarding experience. A special thanks to Dr. Michael Fahy and many others for helping to put together the first annual GameSIG.

Here’s our latest developer test video for the Alpha version of our game (a few revisions ahead of the one that is currently available for download.)

As you can see we’ve enabled the visibility of all ship front vectors as we were testing aiming AI. While the game already feels very fun to play (we love the freedom of motion in 3D space), we’re making many changes, including adding a Galaxy Map, quest system, skill trees, and inventory/currency. We also look forward to replacing the placeholder art and sound assets as the game engine solidifies. Stay tuned!

Changes planned for the next release include a Galaxy-map, quest-driven gameplay, currency, purchasable upgrades, leveling, branching skill trees (Subterfuge, Energy, and Science), and new various new abilities, for both the player and the enemy ships.

Included will also be significant code re-factoring and other optimizations, along with the addition of shader and animation effects as time allows. The camera system has recently been changed to a smoother one and looks great!